In memoriam

"Birdie boo"

We were very sad to loose our cat "Bird" this week. She was very beloved by Nye and was his constant companion. She was as you know quite old and had been getting frail for the last year or so. Settling to a new home and life was harder on her than we realized.

We mourn her and miss her sweet presence daily.

Big Basin Redwoods

"The mountains are calling
and I must go."
— John Muir


All around San Jose are these amazing places to visit. Choosing is often difficult. This past weekend we decided on quiet mornings and fun in the afternoons. On Saturday we went to our friend Autumn's house for a barbecue and the chance to meet some neighborhood children. She and her partner Scott have an amazing deck overlooking the Los Gatos Creek. Standing outside and being buzzed repeatedly by the numerous hummingbirds that frequent her feeder was a treat!

On Sunday Nye and I visited the farmers market in the morning. (Pictures of that will have to wait till a later entry.) In the afternoon we headed off to Big Basin Redwood State Park. What is truly wonderful is that we can have a slow and lazy morning and get to and hike in the afternoon!

Arch and I have been for short walks through the redwoods before but this was our first time hiking for 3+ miles. The majesty of these trees is awesome. Nye just loved finding 100 ft long bridges made of fallen redwoods. Surprising too was that there were so few animals to be spotted. Though we really enjoyed the 8-10" long bright yellow banana slugs. We'll know next time not to pick them up though (a little too slimy.)

Big Basin is very close to the Pacific though you would not have any idea of that while hiking the trails here. All manner of creature were living overhead. But we were simply happy to walk around at their feet and enjoy the vibrant colors and textures of a new habitat. We visited both the "mother tree" and the "father tree" each of which had to be close to 3,000 years old. Can you imagine?

On hot sunny summer days in August I'm sure we'll hear these cool mountain trails calling to us, and we'll be back again to explore and climb at the feet of the great redwoods!

Sara, Nye & Archil

San Francisco Explorers

Enjoying Some City Time

On Saturday we decided to opt for a little city exploration. Both Arch and I have been to San Francisco a few times but Nye does not really remember his first trip to CA at all. With the city so close by we decided to sleep in and enjoy our morning close to home. The drive to the city took us around an hour. (Beautiful country side the whole way on Rt 280.) As "first timers" we decided to explore the area around Fisherman's Warf. While a bit more touristy than our usual fair we still had a blast! We opted for the free parking at Fort Mason and beautiful walk with views of the Golden Gate bridge and the old Palace of Fine Arts buildings.

After exploring the park and checking out the very cool wildflowers we decide to enjoy the beach. Now I have to say these Californians are far more hail and hearty than us New Yorkers. Despite the frigid waters there were quite a few folks who were swimming. The only sensible people we saw were wearing wet suites. Hmmmmm . . .

Nye was quite inspired by his first glimpses of Alcatraz and decided to pay homage by creating an "Abstract Alcatraz" (his words not mine!) in sand on the beach. Perhaps Scooby Doo had something to do with this! With Archil's assistance the two got to work digging in the cold wet sand while I decided, sensibly, to do a little bird watching. Ironically this was rewarded by our first glimpses of a harbor seal. Sorry no pictures! A gray spotted seal on gray blue water is less than thrilling as a photo but really cool to look through binoculars. It seemed to me that he/she was checking out all the activity along shore with beautiful big limpid eyes.

Off we went to explore the rest of the city enjoying lunch, snacks, shopping and the like. One of our favorite stops was the Musee Mechanique, a total tourist trap but fun none-the-less. The Musee houses some truely wonderful coin operatated nickelodian style contraptions. Drop in an quarter and "re-live the 1906 earthquack in stereovision", "test your strength", and "Kiss-o-Meter where you measure the thrill of your kisses." Kitchy, campy, and cute. We were all very enthralled by the delightful turn of the century bowling machines and baseball games.

We wrapped up a sunny day in SF with a trip down to Pier 39 and enjoyed the sunning Sea Lions. Having never seen them before it was a real treat for me. A couple of young males were putting on a show in the water barking and splashing but most of the Sea Lions seemed very content to just sit back and enjoy the warm dry docks! Can't really blame them for that.


I'm sure we'll be back to explore other facets of the city. Arch and I both have favorites areas we're eager to explore. But for a quick trip and a taste it was really a treat!

Love,

Sara, Archil & Nye



I've included a little movie with a few additional pix.

Exploring San Jose's Environs

Castle Rock State Park

One of the things we've been really excited about is exploring the local parks and natural areas around San Jose. For those who are not very familiar with the area San Jose is at the southern end of San Francisco's bay. The area that forms San Jose and many of the "Silicon Valley" suburbs is a flat plane bounded by two low mountain ranges to the east and west. Some of the more famous suburbs like Palo Alto (think Stamford) and Mountain View (think Google) are both on this plane and up into the foothills of the western mountain range.

One of the goals we've set for ourselves is to go and explore as much as we can. We're saving the longer distance trips for a tiny bit later in the year. Lately we've been focused on nearby weekend explorations to get our "footing".

This past weekend we visited Castle Rock State Park. First, we drove up a wonderfully windy road. Think of it really as a cow path that is really one lane wide with switchback and blind turns. Really fun!! (Frankly I think it would have been good to close it off to cars and just give it over to the bicycles.)

Once we reached the top of the ridge we set out to explore one of the local parks trails. We hiked to Goat Rock (I believe so named because to climb it you needed to be nimble and brave as a mountain goat!!) To get to the top which had wonderful vistas of the Pacific we had to climb through beautiful old redwood forests. There were lovely holly bushes all along the trails as well.

Nye, Arch, and I tried to measure a few of these beauties but we soon realized that it would have taken more like 6-8 people to link hands around them!




Calero State Park & Ranch

On Sunday we set off to see Nye's new friend Ivy Bennington at her riding lessons at Calero State Park. After we had a picnic and took a hike. The kids really enjoyed spotting animal tracks (coyote, "puma", black tailed deer, and herons. Note only one of these is a fiction fact!) The landscape at the park seemed pretty typical of the area south of San Jose. The kids spent a lot of productive time searching for "gems" and "crystals as well.

We didn't spot too many animals but we did finally see a few flocks of wild turkeys as the browsed in the fields and stole hay seeds from the hay barn.

One of the more fun things that Sara discovered is that many of the trees at this time of year have these funny green plants that are sort of hanging off them. I asked a colleague about them and it turns out they are Misteltoe. Nearby the museum the clumps are about the size of a small basket ball. But when we went to Calero State Park, well take a look at the clumps of Mistel toe! These were easily the size of a cooler.

We're delighted to get some time to explore as a family. We're looking forward finding more parks and places for Nye and us to find discoveries large and small.

Best,

Sara, Archil & Nye

The Big Blue

Enjoying Our First Trip to the Pacific Ocean

This weekend we were able to take our first trip to the Pacific since landing in San Jose. We set out on a drive that took us over the Santa Cruz mountains. We passed Eucalyptus trees and Red woods on wonderfully windy roads. (Boy this little Honda is gonna get a work out!) Along the way we passed very cute little roadside cafés that seemed to be frequented by bike and motorcycle riders.

Once we were on the other side of the tall trees both Arch and I felt that the terrain looked a lot like either Tuscany or Umbria. (Maybe a bit more Umbrian because of the amount of agriculture.) Suffice to say we were both thrilled since we've been harboring secret fantasies of moving to Italy for quite a few years!

Finally we spotted the "Big Blue", the Pacific Ocean. Needless to say we stopped at the very first beach we passed. San Gregoria - sp. Between the cool cliff's that dive down in the ocean, the huge waves, the broad crecent beach, and the surfers . . . well it was really cool!

Nye and Arch build a raft out of drift wood. We explored a couple of sea caves. I took pictures of beach flowers. Basically we just goofed around and played near the pounding surf.

After lunch in Pescedro at a restaurant that has been there since the time of that stage coaches traveled along Route 1 we went to explore a local marsh. There were lots of ducks and other birds a bit too far away to see with the binoculars. But once again the humming birds put on a good show for us. We had amazingly good looks at Allen's humming birds and we think Ruby throated hummers.

Check out the flikr link below to see some pix of the Pacific coast near where we live.

We can't wait to continue to explore. Nye plans to rate all the beaches based on features, wind, etc.

All the best,

Sara, Arch and Nye

Try this movie instead: